Phonotheca and ATLAS.ti
An ATLAS.ti alternative for everything before coding
ATLAS.ti is a coding suite with transcription sold separately. Phonotheca transcribes the round in the browser, keeps every interview searchable from any machine, and exports the project as REFI-QDA when the coding starts.
P08 · Clinic interviews
What did you do when the referral never arrived?
I rang every week until someone wrote my name down.
PersistenceNobody told me that was how it worked.
Open the sample workspaceNo account needed.
Where they differ
ATLAS.ti is a licence you install and renew, with transcription bought on top. Phonotheca is a browser workspace that transcribes the round inside the subscription.
| Capability | Phonotheca | ATLAS.ti |
|---|---|---|
| Transcription hours in the price | Included | Not included |
| Speaker-labeled, timestamped transcripts | Included | Paid separately |
| Free plan with the full workspace | Included | Not included |
| Search across every project at once | Included | Per project |
| Correct a speaker label in place | Included | Not included |
| Priced by | Audio hour | Licence |
Run both, in order
Transcribe in the browser
Upload the round and get speaker-labeled transcripts back. Nothing to install, and the workspace opens on whichever machine you have with you.
Find the passage first
Search reaches every interview in every project and returns the turn that matched, with its speaker and timestamp. Nothing has to be coded before it is findable.
Export the project as .qdpx
Transcripts arrive in ATLAS.ti as documents and your tags as codes, each still attached to the passage it marked, through the REFI-QDA exchange format both tools support.
Which tool fits which job
Phonotheca fits when you have
- A round of interviews to transcribe before any coding starts
- A quote you remember and cannot place, across every participant
- Themes you mark as you read rather than a formal codebook
- A budget of your own and a laptop that changes from week to week
ATLAS.ti fits when you have
- A codebook applied systematically across a large dataset
- Networks, co-occurrence tables, and query-driven analysis
- Documents, images, and geo data analysed next to interviews
- Two coders whose agreement has to be measured
Both products change. Check each vendor’s site before you switch.
Quotes come out with the citation on them
Copy a passage and the participant, interview, and timestamp come with it, ready for a chapter or a report. A tag gathers the same theme from every participant, and the Markdown and CSV exports carry those citations through.
I rang every week until someone wrote my name down.
P08 · 00:21:48 · Clinic interviews
Copy with citationPriced for a dissertation budget
Every limit is audio hours. Never a file count.
Free
Enough to see a corpus take shape.
$0forever
3 audio hours, once
- Unlimited projects, interviews, and tags
- Full-text search across every transcript
- Markdown, CSV, and REFI-QDA export
Solo
A study's worth of interviews, every month.
$12per month
20 audio hours a month
- Hours reset on your renewal date
- Everything in Free, never gated
Pro
RecommendedFor a fieldwork season or a whole cohort.
$29per month
50 audio hours a month
- Hours reset on your renewal date
- Everything in Solo
A 20-interview round of hour-long interviews fits inside a single month of Solo. Compare the plans
Common questions from researchers
- Does this replace ATLAS.ti?
- For a study analysed through tagging, search, and quotes, it covers the work end to end. For networks, co-occurrence analysis, query tools, or inter-coder agreement, ATLAS.ti does things this does not, and the export exists so you can use both.
- What does the REFI-QDA export contain?
- A .qdpx archive with each transcript as a plain-text document and each tag as a code, with coded passages addressed by character range. ATLAS.ti, NVivo, MAXQDA, Dedoose, and Quirkos all import it. Audio is left out of the archive.
- Can I open an existing ATLAS.ti project here?
- No. Import reads transcripts as TXT, SRT, or VTT, so a transcript inside an ATLAS.ti project has to come out as text first. The traffic in the other direction is the supported one.
- I remember a participant saying something but not who or when.
- Search every transcript at once. Results carry the participant, the interview, and the timestamp, and one click plays that point in the audio, whether or not the passage was ever coded.
- How do I fix a speaker the transcript got wrong?
- Split the segment at the word where the turn actually changes and reassign the speaker, or merge it back into the segment above. Tags follow both halves, so an edit never drops a quote from an export.
- What can I put in an ethics application?
- The data governance statement names where processing happens, lists every sub-processor with its country, sets out retention and deletion, and ends with two paragraphs you can paste into a consent form or an application.
Related pages
Transcribe the round, then code it wherever you like
Three audio hours are free, which covers the first few participants.